Policemen at the mercy of gunmen —Mr. MSK

Police have probably always been part of human society. Their job of securing the society from criminals cannot be overemphasised. So it is understandable that they can never be loved by the undesirable elements in society.

In developed environments, criminals are always afraid of encounters with the police so, they do everything possible to avoid them.

But in this clime, the reverse seems to be the case. It is the police (this is without exaggeration) who seem to be doing everything possible to avert confrontations with the men and women of the underworld. In Nigeria, criminals are the lords of the manor.

Criminals seem to have the upper hand in the antithetical relationship between them and the police. For the law enforcers, it is a case of the hunter being hunted.

The recent vicious attack on the Divisional Police Command at Afuze, headquarters of Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State, has made the above assertion crystal clear.

In the said attack, gunmen, whose motives are yet to be established, invaded the police division, shooting as devil-possessed blood-thirsty demons. By the time the smoke dried from the nozzles of their guns, four officers on duty – the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), a pregnant policewoman and two others – were lying on the floor, stone dead.

The officers killed in the attack were Superintendent of Police (SP) Tosimani Ojo, the DPO; Sergeant Justina Aghomon, a pregnant woman; Inspector Sado Isaac and Corporal Glory David.
The gunmen were not done yet with their murderous mission. After the attack on the police division, they went to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and shot sporadically at policemen on duty.

Not only that, the hoodlums burnt election materials and a police van at the INEC office.
This was not the first time gunmen were descending on hapless policemen and officers in Edo State, particularly in the Owan axis of the state.

Last July, a gang of armed men killed four policemen in Sabongida Ora, in Owan West Local Government Area of the state. The policemen were on a routine patrol when the bandits swooped on them about 6p.m.

After killing the policemen, the murderers burnt them in their patrol van. Three of them were burnt beyond recognition.

Also, a few days ago, gunmen abducted an officer, later identified as Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Godwin Oshiogbuwe, and four others at Ubiaja, headquarters of Esan South-East Local Government Area of the state
Oshiogbuwe and the other victims were kidnapped when the vehicle in which they were travelling to Asaba was stopped by the gunmen, who barricaded the road.

The victims were taken into the bush.
But a few days later, Oshiogbuwe’s body was discovered in a forest on Ubiaja-Ewohimi-Agbor Road by a tactical team in search of his abductors.

It was reported that Oshiogbuwe was murdered because the abductors discovered he was a police officer through his identification card and photographs on his mobile phone.
Killing of policemen by bandits is not limited to Edo State; it happens almost on a daily basis across the country. It also happened in Offa, Kwara State where a dismissed policeman led a robbery gang to kill policemen in a police station.

Also, on July 3, 2018, seven policemen on stop-and-search duty were ambushed and killed by gunmen at a roundabout in Galadimawa area of Abuja.
When the four policemen were killed, the then Inspector-General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, ordered investigation into the murder. Idris also placed a N5 million-bounty on the killers. But the outcome of the probe is yet to be made public.

It is sad that police find it difficult to investigate killing of their colleagues. In better organised climes, any crime involving the killing of a law enforcement officer is usually ruthlessly investigated and culprits arrested. But the reverse is the case in Nigeria.

We call on the police Acting IG, Mohammed Adamu, to immediately order a thorough probe into the Afuze killing and make the findings public. It must not be like other cases in the past.

We also call on the police hierarchy to ensure adequate protection is provided for police stations across the country. It is a shame if the protectors of Nigerians cannot protect themselves. Or how would they be able to protect the defenceless Nigerians who rely on the police for their safety?